“There have
been demonstrations in New Zealand, Moscow and St Petersburg
protesting against my son Joe’s imprisonment and unjust
treatment at the hands of the MoD [Ministry of Defence] and
British Government. We remain strong in the knowledge that Joe
is right.” Sue
Glenton, shown with Against The War York (UK)

Joe Glenton is the first
soldier in Europe to publicly refuse to fight in Afghanistan.
He was sent there with the
British army in 2006: while
politicians claim that troops were
there ‘to help’, he saw that the Afghan people were against them.
He went AWOL) in 2007 and handed himself in two years later.

Last November, he
was jailed for a month, then released on condition that he does
not speak in public. His mother Sue and his wife Clare have
carried on speaking for him and against the war and occupation.
On 29 January, as a result of international support within and
outside the military, the military court dropped the most
serious charges which carried a 10-year sentence. However, in
spite of being diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, on 5 March Joe will be put on trial for going AWOL,
facing two years in jail. This amounts to mental torture.

Joe Glenton is one
of thousands of men and
women around the world who refuse to serve in the military—a
crucial
part of the international anti-war movement. To defend Western
interests, NATO troops have ravaged Afghanistan, one of the
poorest countries in the world. The majority of casualties are
women. In 2004, the UN estimated that of the 1.5 million people
killed in conflicts over two decades, 300,000 were children.
This bloodshed must stop. Thoseresponsible for the
crime of war should be tried, not those who refuse to kill.
REFUSING TO KILL IS NOT A CRIME!

Public
meetings with Sue Glenton:

Tour
proposed by Disarmiamoli. Sponsored by Disarmiamoli, (Cremona not
confirmed) No Dal Molin, and Peace Centre of Venice Town Hall.

·They
take a lot of our money to kill more of us: World governments
spent a record $1.46 trillion on upgrading their armed forces
last year, almost half of this by the US alone. At least 753,399 people have
been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.

·You
can also be killed:
4,368 US and 179 UK soldiers killed in Iraq; 986 US, 256 UK, and
389 soldiers from other countries, among whom 22 Italian, killed
in Afghanistan.

·Or
wounded:
4,139
US and 2,864 UK soldiers wounded in Afghanistan; 31,514 US and
11,750 UK soldiers wounded in Iraq.

·Or
kill yourself : In the UK 264
Falklands veterans committed suicide after the war, while 255
were killed in the war. In the US, at least 6,200 veterans kill
themselves each year.

·Or
become physically ill, perhaps fatally: 6,000 UK and an estimated
210,000 US soldiers (30%) developed Gulf War Syndrome after the
first Gulf War.

·Or
mentally ill: More
than 1,500 British Iraq veterans have been diagnosed with mental
health disorders. About 300,000 (20%) US veterans suffer from
major depression or PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

·Or
homeless: 1,100 UK veterans
sleep rough or in hostels every night in London. In the US, one
out of every three homeless men are veterans.

·Or
get into trouble with the law: 8,500 UK veterans are in prison
– 10% of the prison population! In 2004, there were 140,000
veterans in US prisons - 23% of them for a violent crime,
including for sexual assault.

·Or
kill or rape:
Murders committed by UK active-duty soldiers rose 89% from the
pre-war period.
Domestic violence is five times higher among US military
families than among civilian families.

·Or
be raped or bullied: Who can forget the
sexual abuse and sadism towards young recruits in UK Deepcut
barracks? In the US, 30%
of women ex-soldiers have reported rape or attempted rape within
the military.